26.05 NeMo Retriever Library release notes

[kheiss-uwzoo]

Summary

Adds docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md as the published 26.05 release notes page for NeMo Retriever Library (26.5.0). The page documents what changed since 26.03 and follows the same presentation pattern as prior extraction release notes (intro, Helm upgrade link, highlights list).

26.03 release content is not duplicated on this page; readers are directed to the published 26.03 release notes via Release Notes for Previous Versions.

What's in the doc

• 26.05 overview — graph-based ingest, Retriever Service v2, VLM captioning (26.03 deferral), Helm-first documentation story
• Upgrade notes — .extract(split_config=...), grouped Retriever(...) kwargs (vdb_kwargs, embed_kwargs, rerank), Helm service.installFfmpeg, Python 3.12
• Discoverable highlight subsections — pipeline, CLI (supported vs experimental subcommands), service/deployment, models/OCR/captioning, multimodal, RAG, vector DB, evaluation, text-to-SQL/tabular, packaging, Helm, documentation
• Navigation — previous-versions table (26.03 → 24.12.0) and related-topic links to prerequisites, deployment options, and Helm charts

Scope

Path	Change
docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md	New / updated 26.05 release notes only

No product code, Helm values, or workflow changes.

Test plan

• MkDocs build includes releasenotes.md in the extraction nav without broken internal links (overview.md, deployment-options.md, prerequisites-support-matrix.md)
• Release Notes for Previous Versions — 26.03 link resolves on the published 26.3.0 doc set
• Spot-check Upgrade notes against nemo_retriever API (constructor kwargs, split_config, Python requires-python)
• Doc preview: subsection headings render in the page TOC

[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

This PR replaces the 26.03 body on releasenotes.md with full 26.05 content covering graph-based ingest, Retriever Service v2, VLM captioning, CLI support boundaries, and a Helm-first documentation story, while moving 26.03 to the previous-versions table.

• The 26.03 release body is removed in favour of a structured set of ### subsections documenting 26.05 highlights, upgrade notes, and packaging changes.
• The "Release Notes for Previous Versions" table and the Related Topics Helm link are both updated to point at versioned 26.3.0 and branch-pinned 26.05 URLs respectively.
• One ### section heading is missing before the text-to-SQL/tabular bullet, which orphans that content from the page TOC.

Confidence Score: 4/5

Safe to merge after adding the missing section heading; no product code is touched.

The text-to-SQL/tabular bullet is structurally orphaned — no ### heading precedes it, so it falls outside any named section and is absent from the page TOC, directly contradicting the PR's goal of discoverable subsection headings. Everything else (previous-versions URLs, upgrade notes, Helm link) looks correct and consistent with prior release pages.

docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md — the orphaned text-to-SQL bullet between ### Evaluation and ### Packaging and platform.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md	26.05 release notes added with subsection structure; one subsection heading missing before the text-to-SQL/tabular bullet, leaving it orphaned outside any named section.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[releasenotes.md] --> B["## 26.05 Release Notes (26.5.0)"]
    B --> C["### Upgrade notes"]
    B --> D["### Pipeline and ingestion"]
    B --> E["### CLI"]
    B --> F["### Retriever Service and deployment"]
    B --> G["### Models, OCR, and captioning"]
    B --> H["### Multimodal extraction"]
    B --> I["### Retrieval and RAG"]
    B --> J["### Vector database"]
    B --> K["### Evaluation"]
    B --> L["⚠️ ORPHANED BULLET — missing ### heading\n(Text-to-SQL and tabular)"]
    B --> M["### Packaging and platform"]
    B --> N["### Helm chart"]
    B --> O["### Documentation"]
    A --> P["## Release Notes for Previous Versions"]
    P --> Q["26.03 → 26.3.0 versioned URL ✓"]
    A --> R["## Related Topics"]
    R --> S["Helm Charts → pinned 26.05 branch ✓"]

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Prompt To Fix All With AI

Fix the following 1 code review issue. Work through them one at a time, proposing concise fixes.

---

### Issue 1 of 1
docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md:60-63
Missing section heading for text-to-SQL/tabular content — the bullet on line 63 is orphaned. Every other content category in this release has a `###` subsection heading, and the PR description explicitly lists "text-to-SQL/tabular" as a discoverable highlight subsection. Without the heading, this item falls visually under `### Evaluation` (separated only by a blank line), the page TOC omits it entirely, and readers scanning subsection headers cannot discover the text-to-SQL capabilities.

```suggestion
- BEIR-centric evaluation overhaul and `retriever skill-eval` benchmark CLI for the NeMo Retriever skill (experimental)  

### Text-to-SQL and tabular

- Text-to-SQL agent graph and tabular tooling for structured data retrieval, including tabular data ingestion  
```

_{Reviews (8): Last reviewed commit: "Update docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

[greptile-apps]

FFmpeg removal attributed to the wrong release

The added bullet — "Container images built from this repository no longer install ffmpeg/ffprobe by default" — describes a 26.05 breaking change (it appears verbatim in the 26.05 "Breaking changes and migration" section on line 29). Placing it in the 26.03 notes implies the removal happened in 26.03. A user running 26.03 who reads this could spend time debugging phantom audio/video failures that won't exist until they upgrade to 26.05, or conclude the 26.03 build is broken when it isn't. Since this is a 26.05 change, remove the bullet from the 26.03 section (the 26.05 breaking-changes section already documents it completely).

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md
Line: 175

Comment:
**FFmpeg removal attributed to the wrong release**

The added bullet — "Container images built from this repository no longer install `ffmpeg`/`ffprobe` by default" — describes a **26.05 breaking change** (it appears verbatim in the 26.05 "Breaking changes and migration" section on line 29). Placing it in the 26.03 notes implies the removal happened in 26.03. A user running 26.03 who reads this could spend time debugging phantom audio/video failures that won't exist until they upgrade to 26.05, or conclude the 26.03 build is broken when it isn't. Since this is a 26.05 change, remove the bullet from the 26.03 section (the 26.05 breaking-changes section already documents it completely).

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

[greptile-apps]

Missing section heading for text-to-SQL/tabular content — the bullet on line 63 is orphaned. Every other content category in this release has a ### subsection heading, and the PR description explicitly lists "text-to-SQL/tabular" as a discoverable highlight subsection. Without the heading, this item falls visually under ### Evaluation (separated only by a blank line), the page TOC omits it entirely, and readers scanning subsection headers cannot discover the text-to-SQL capabilities.

Suggested change

	- BEIR-centric evaluation overhaul and `retriever skill-eval` benchmark CLI for the NeMo Retriever skill (experimental)
	- Text-to-SQL agent graph and tabular tooling for structured data retrieval, including tabular data ingestion
	- BEIR-centric evaluation overhaul and `retriever skill-eval` benchmark CLI for the NeMo Retriever skill (experimental)
	### Text-to-SQL and tabular
	- Text-to-SQL agent graph and tabular tooling for structured data retrieval, including tabular data ingestion

Prompt To Fix With AI

This is a comment left during a code review.
Path: docs/docs/extraction/releasenotes.md
Line: 60-63

Comment:
Missing section heading for text-to-SQL/tabular content — the bullet on line 63 is orphaned. Every other content category in this release has a `###` subsection heading, and the PR description explicitly lists "text-to-SQL/tabular" as a discoverable highlight subsection. Without the heading, this item falls visually under `### Evaluation` (separated only by a blank line), the page TOC omits it entirely, and readers scanning subsection headers cannot discover the text-to-SQL capabilities.

```suggestion
- BEIR-centric evaluation overhaul and `retriever skill-eval` benchmark CLI for the NeMo Retriever skill (experimental)  

### Text-to-SQL and tabular

- Text-to-SQL agent graph and tabular tooling for structured data retrieval, including tabular data ingestion  
```

How can I resolve this? If you propose a fix, please make it concise.

Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!